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Tawanda Marwizi Arts Correspondent
The musical relationship between Blessing Shumba and his former keyboardist and producer Lyton Ngolomi, which has been tied by a thin thread since Ngolomi crossed the floor to join Mathias Mhere, has finally broken.Shumba kept Ngolomi as his producer despite the music maker’s move to his serious competitor, but the Mutare-based musician this week announced he would be working with a South African producer for his 2014 album.
Music critics accused Ngolomi of creating confusion in the music industry after he did similar beats for Mhere and Shumba.
Mhere’s first album under Ngolomi was initially mistaken for Shumba’s release as pirates capitalised on the confusion.
However, Shumba insisted he had no problem with his producer and went on to work with him in the studio.
The gospel musician insists he has not dumped Ngolomi becasue of any differences, arguing he was offered free services by a South African producer.
“There is no bad blood between me and Ngolomi, it’s just that there is a South African producer who offered to do an album for me for free,” said Shumba.
He added that he is willing to work with Ngolomi in his next project.
However, sources within Shumba’s band said the gospel musician was not happy with recent controversy surrounding Ngolomi’s productions.
Recently, Ngolomi came under fire for producing Trymore Bande’s album with striking resemblance to Pastor Charles Charamba’s productions. Pirates once again capitalised on the issue and sold Bande’s album as Pastor Charamba’s new release. Sources said Shumba wanted to distance himself from Ngolomi’s works.
“Shumba is a man of cloth and he does not want to be associated with controversy.
“He retained Ngolomi as his producer when he had joined Mhere because he did not want to be seen as jealousy,” said the source.
“This issue involving Bande and Charamba has been heavily publicised and the fact that Charamba reported Bande to the police over the new album has left Sumba with no option but to dump Ngolomi to get out of the confusion and avoid an embarrassing situation in the future.”
Shumba, however, downplayed the issue saying the South African producer offered free services to him after he appreciated his show in Khanyelisa, Cape Town recently.
“It was a great show and people including that man were impressed by my stage work and he decided to do my music for free.
“That is the only reason for the move,” said the soft-spoken musician. Shumba said the album is almost complete and would be released in February.
An album titled “Mushandiri Washe” is also on the street as Shumba’s 2013 release but the musician distanced himself from the fake product.
“I did not release an album in 2014 because people are still enjoying the work of God on our last album, Shongwe. We will release a new album in February, 2014,” he said.
Online Reporter